[Red Rocks]

I just finished reading the old thread on potter's who influenced your life, started by Marcia. How about an off-shoot? "The top 5 books on pottery that influenced you the most. I would list mine as:

- Marguerite Wildenhain - The Invisible Core: A Potter's Life and Thoughts
- Bernard Leach - The Potter's Challenge
- Michael Cardew - A Pioneer Potter
- Charles Counts - Pottery Workshop
- Frederick Olsen - The Kiln Book

I am always looking out for new books (or old ones for that matter) on pottery and the philosophy of pottery – so hopefully this will start a thread of us sharing books that have inspired us.

[Mark C.]

Getting it down to 5 is hard
HAMMADA,potter
Clay and glazes for the potter-Rhodes
Stoneware and Porcelain-Rhodes
The Kiln book-Olsen
The art of Firing-Nils Lou

runner -up all studio potter issues
Mark

[Wendey]

Red Rocks, on 21 August 2012 - 08:06 PM, said:

I just finished reading the old thread on potter's who influenced your life, started by Marcia. How about an off-shoot? "The top 5 books on pottery that influenced you the most. I would list mine as:

- Marguerite Wildenhain - The Invisible Core: A Potter's Life and Thoughts
- Bernard Leach - The Potter's Challenge
- Michael Cardew - A Pioneer Potter
- Charles Counts - Pottery Workshop
- Frederick Olsen - The Kiln Book

I am always looking out for new books (or old ones for that matter) on pottery and the philosophy of pottery – so hopefully this will start a thread of us sharing books that have inspired us.

Michael Cardew - Pioneer Potter
Robin Hopper - Functional Pottery
Leila Philip - The Road Through Miyama - memoir about living in a small Japanese village as a pottery apprentice.

[IronMike]

Here are my top five:
- Out of the Earth, into the Fire: A Course in Ceramic Materials for the Studio Potter
- The Ceramic Spectrum by hopper
- Glazes from Natural Sources by Brian Sutherland
- Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelian by Jack Troy
- Gas Burners for Forges, Furnaces, and Kilns by Michael Porter



Then if you are into wood fire like me look into "The log book" series. by Coll Minogue and Robert Sanderson

[Marcia Selsor]

I would say
for my education early on in ceramics:
- Bernard Leach - The Potter's Book
- Michael Cardew - A Pioneer Pottery
-Stoneware and Porcelain; the Art of High Fired Pottery by Daniel Rhodes
-The short Kiln Building book by Paul Soldner
-The Potters' Alternative by Harry Davis + the Studio Potter Book 1978

and some other favorites for looking at how others made their way in ceramics:
-Grand Feu Ceramics- Taxile Doat
biography of Bernard Palissy by Leonard Amico
Glory in Porcelain , biography of Adelaide Robineau by Peg Weiss
The Ceramics Career of M Louise McLaughlin
Mad Potter of Biloxi

Marcia

[Amy Waller]

10,000 years of pottery by Emmanuel Cooper (earlier printings/editions titled Ten thousand years of pottery)

Pottery analysis: a sourcebook by Prudence M. Rice

Pottery in the making: world ceramic traditions edited by Ian Freestone and David Gaimster

Gifts of the Nile edited by Florence Friedman

Ceramics from Islamic lands by Oliver Watson

I love these book threads.

[Red Rocks]

There are some really great books listed here…should really add some inspirational books to our reading lists. I saw Marcia called out a book about George Ohr, the mad potter of Biloxi. A really amazing character – if you have never heard of him, you should definitely look him up. He was someone way ahead of his time.

[Marcia Selsor]

Red Rocks, on 23 August 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

There are some really great books listed here…should really add some inspirational books to our reading lists. I saw Marcia called out a book about George Ohr, the mad potter of Biloxi. A really amazing character – if you have never heard of him, you should definitely look him up. He was someone way ahead of his time.

I visited his museum in Biloxi last year. it is a growing institution and awesome museum.
Marcia

[Lucille Oka]

Interesting fellow. I read that George Ohr gave up pottery to sell Cadillac cars. That is an odd thing to me. I like to think once a potter always a potter.
Some of his work seems to scream 'frustration'. There are vessels that appear to have even been strangled. Here are a few pictures that may be of interest. If you Google George Ohr you can see many more.

 George Ohr.jpg (9.34K)
Number of downloads: 26  #2 George Ohr.jpg (5.44K)
Number of downloads: 37  Gorge Ohr Pottery #1 image.jpg (6.36K)
Number of downloads: 29